58 
queen, the drones, and domestic neuters feast, the mome 
this kind of provision is presented to them. ae 
I have collected some of these pellets, which dropped 
from the thighs of the bees on the stand, at the ent i 
of the hive. I collected them in cones of paper, like sugar 
plums. I have tasted and eaten them, and found nothin 
but sugar extracted from flowers, and its aroma was no- — 
thing like that of wax. es 
-Reaumur, one of our luminaries in natural history, le 
astray by this opinion of crude or wild (brute) wax, thought — 
it could be gathered from flowers and plants. He was en- 
gaged in the experiment a long time, without obtain 
any favourable result. This celebrated sage avowed his de. 
feat, and acknowledged that no one ought to expect real 
wax but from the labour of bees. Lie 
During autumn and winter, bees, who live only on hone 
can discharge nothing but wax. In that season, the honey 
after having nourished the bee, uniformly passes from the 
first to the second stomach. If they were fed with sugar — 
or vegetable sirups, they would produce honey with which ~ 
they could supply some of their cells; but in general the 
insects make nothing but wax in autumn and winter. _ 
Wax is necessary for bees in winter, for the construction 
of combs and cells, which will become the.cradles of ne 
couvain. ‘They advance their constructions to receive the 
lay of the queen, which commences in the month of Fe- 
bruary, and earlier if the weather permits. ae 
_ It would, therefore, be erroneous to believe, that bees — 
never make wax-work only when they are forced to it, to 
furnish cells for the deposit of the queen’s eggs, or to 
build magazines in summer, for their provisions. Nature 
has. made them provident, and they are occupied in winter. 
in these waxen works, which will be necessary for them on — 
the return of summer. The construction of their cells in 
winter, advances in proportion to the consumption of ho- 
ney. This is a fact which every body can verify. I hay 
often made the experiment, about the end of October, to p 
families of bees into boxes, without combs or honey, andi 
the month of March, to find these boxes filled frem top to Z 
bottom with combs. Because they were never left withang : 
honey, and with honey they could make nothing but wax. — 
That kind of dust which is observed on many of our smooth 
skinned fruits, such as the prune, grape, &c. and whi 
called the flower of fruit, is not wax,’ nor can it become 
